Since October 2024, I have been trying to get this published in print: President Trump admires Victor Orban, Hungary's Prime Minister. Since 2010, Orban has ruled with a 2/3 parliamentary majority.
Since then, electoral reform reduced the number of parliamentary seats, reorganized precincts, and terminated a second ballot, the “Balancing Mandate.” The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe observed that elections in 2014 and 2018 were “free but not fair.”
Orban’s new constitution curtails judicial independence by declaring tax, financial laws, and constitutional changes untouchable by the courts. Minorities (Roma) are no longer members of the Hungarian nation. Courts can use precedents only when they were established after the constitutional reforms.
The European Commission has filed suits before the European Court accusing the Orban government of curtailing judicial independence, freedom of expression, academic freedom, protection of minorities, and fundamental rights of asylum-seekers and refugees.
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Uwe Manthei
Midtown
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